Life As You Know It
by samlover14
Summary: Basically a story about the cast of High School Musical. They come and "rescue" me from my college, and take me to LA, where we do HSM3 together. Because, after all, we're all in this together. Zanessa and Jashley for now, but Lashley later. T to be safe
1. It All Begins

**General Plot Synopsis: **Katrina and Samantha are sitting in the sketchy computer lab, when all of a sudden something interesting happens, and they are really confused.

Chapter 1 (February 22, 2008)

I was sitting in the sketchy computer lab at my college, with my best friend Katrina. Well, actually, she's not my best friend, but for the purposes of this story, she is. I was writing a story similar to this one. One of pure fiction, of course. It snowing really hard, and Katrina was doing her homework. Sort of. Then, all of a sudden, the power went out. It was quite dark. I sighed and got up from the computer that was now off. I tried the door handle, but it was locked. We were trapped in the computer lab, with a whole bunch of computers that didn't even work. _Damn._

"Just push," Katrina said.

"Yeah, because that's your solution for everything," I said. "And the door is a pull door." She frowned and got up from her chair. "Go ahead and try. I'm telling you, it's locked." She tried, apparently with all of her effort, but failed to get the door open. "I really hate to tell you I told you so, no, wait, I don't. I told you so." Katrina sighed and sat back down in her chair. [I just asked Katrina what we would do if we were stuck in the computer lab with no power, and she said, and this is a direct quote, "This is the coolest butterfly ever." How is that helpful? I started rummaging through my backpack.

"What are you looking for?" Katrina asked, annoyed.

"Flashlight," I said.

"You keep a flashlight in your backpack?" she asked. I nodded. "Why?"

"For just such an occasion," I said. I pulled out my small blue circular flashlight, and went back to rummaging.

"What are you looking for now?" Katrina asked. I pulled out a small white orb. "What is that?" I didn't say anything. I just turned it on. It started turning pretty colors and emitting light. "Ooh, shiny." She sat staring at it. "You carry that around, but you don't bother bringing a cell phone?"

"You don't even_have_ a cell phone," I said. "Don't yell at me." We sat in the semi-darkness for a while. I had my iPod in my ears, so I didn't know if she was trying to talk to me. After a while, it was really pretty dark outside. Then, there was a disturbance in the force. There were people outside the doors to the hallway. "What is that?"

"I think it's a tour," Katrina said.

"It's gotta be like 6 at night. What is a tour doing here? With no power?" I said. Katrina shrugged. I stood up from the floor where I had been laying and looked at them. It was a tour, and they were passing by. I banged on the window. Some of the people looked at me. "HEY! I think we're stuck in here! Can you get us out?" The UNE Tour Guide looked at us and shrugged. She tried to get the door open, but it didn't work. She even tried using her I.D. Nothing worked. _Damn._

"Step aside, ladies," said one of the guests. He backed up and broke the door in.

"Hey, thanks," said Katrina. "Wait, are you…The Guy?"

"Yeah," he said. "I'm The Guy. Who are you?"

"Um, I'm Katrina," said Katrina, now very embarrassed. The Guy had come to save. I gathered my backpack, and went to stand in the hall, determined not to get stuck in the lab again. I took a look at the other people standing with the tour guide.

"Um, this is weird. Why are a whole bunch of famous people touring my college?" I said.

"Well," said Zac, "we're obviously here to rescue the pretty girls." Katrina and I looked at each other and squealed. Vanessa frowned at Zac. "But none as pretty as my beautiful girlfriend. Vanessa. Right. I have a girlfriend. I'm straight!" Everyone in the hall looked at him.

"Um, dude," said Corbin. "That was weird. I think we've had this talk before." Zac blushed, even though I couldn't really tell, in the darkness.

"Yeah," said Lucas. "I thought I was the gay one."

"Oh, wait, so you are gay?" I said. "I always told my mom you weren't."

"Oh, he's not," said Vanessa, smiling evilly. Lucas blushed even redder than Zac. Corbin cleared his throat.

"Uh, V? I don't think that's exactly an appropriate topic of conversation in front of people we don't even know," he said. "Yet," he added. I blushed. Katrina wasn't paying attention the stars of High School Musical. She was all wrapped up in The Guy. The Guy was hot, sure, but Zac Efron, Lucas Grabeel, and Corbin Bleu were here!!!! True, they had brought Vanessa Hudgens, but whatever.

"So where's Ashley and Monique?" I asked. Corbin looked around, evidently surprised that they were not there.

"Uh, guys? Where are the girls?" Corbin asked. Lucas and Zac looked around too. Vanessa sighed.

"They're down by the kiosk," she said. "They said it was really pretty."

"It's gotta be, like, 6 degrees down there, you know. It's snowing pretty hard," I said. Lucas nodded.

"So, I hear there's food in this building," he said.

"Uh, yeah, actually, the cafeteria is just over there," said the Tour Guide.

"Um, yeah, I don't think we'll be needing a tour guide anymore," said Corbin. "Thank, though." He put hi arm around me. I had to resist the urge to squeal. The power suddenly came back on. "Huh." That was all the explanation needed. I quickly took my earbuds out of my ears and threw my iPod into my purse. I put my arm around Corbin's waist, still resisting the urge to squeal.

"Listening to anything good?" asked Lucas. I blushed again.

"Um, Hairspray, actually," I said. "So, yeah." Vanessa was frowning at the mention of Hairspray. She doesn't like Nikki Blonsky. We walked down the hall and around the corner to the cafeteria, which was almost empty, being it a Friday around six. I pulled out my ID to pay for the meal, and was about to charge everyone else's meals to my account when the cashier started screaming about how Zac Efron was there. Zac and Lucas managed to get her calmed down and she gave them all free meals. Unfortunately, some freshmen girls had noticed Zac too, and started screaming as well. Zac gave them all autographs and shook them off before Vanessa started getting mad. Katrina found a table to sit at. I put down my bag and took off my coat. I had to fight the urge to plush again when I remembered which shirt I was wearing. [The black HSM one with all of the glitter.

After getting some food, we sat down again. Corbin was apparently very hungry, as he ahd taken some of just about everything. I had my usual fries, salad, and vegetable of the day, all swimming in Ranch dressing. Vanessa wasn't eating anything, but she did have a Diet Pepsi. Zac and Lucas had sandwiches from the sandwich bar. The Guy had pizza, and Katrina had whatever would fit on her tray.

"So what are you guys really doing here?" I asked. Zac looked at Lucas and shrugged.

"Kenny's thinking of shooting College Musical here, so we all came up to look at it," Zac said.

"Who's Kenny?" Katrina asked. "Is he hot?"

"He's the director of High School Musical. And you would probably think so," I said to her. I turned back to Zac. "She won't watch the movies. She claims she doesn't have time." Lucas laughed.

"My sister said she only watched them because I was in them," he said. I laughed.

"The first time I went to watch it, it was the sing along version, and my sister got mad at me for singing along, so I stormed out," I said. Lucas was surprised. "So, technically, I didn't see the first one until the day before the second one premiered. And now I'm so super pumped for the third one." All three boys were looking at me now. "What?"

"You're not going to ask us what happens?" Zac asked.

"Um, no. I'd rather be surprised," I said. "All I need to know is: As seniors in high school ,Troy and Gabriella struggle with the idea of being separated from one another as college approaches. Along with the rest of the Wildcats, they stage a spring musical to address their experiences, hopes and fears about their future. Good enough for me. Besides, you guys haven't even started filming yet. When is that, April 21st ish? Zac and Corbin looked at each other.

"Uh, yeah, that's right," Corbin said. There was silence for a while as we ate our food. When we were finished I showed them how to put their trays away and we left the cafeteria. In the lobby, Zac and Lucas seemed to have spotted someone they knew. "Hey, Olesya, Chris, Ryne!" Corbin said. "When'd you finally decide to show up?"

"Out flight got delayed because of the snow," said Chris. "And Kaycee isn't coming." I thought I was about to have a fit. Olesya Rulin, Ryne Sanborn, and Christopher Warren, Jr. were here too.

"Who's the girl?" asked Ryne. I blushed.

"I'm Samantha," I said. "And this is my friend, Katrina." Katrina waved, and then went back to whatever it was she was doing with the guy.

"Nice to meet you," said Olesya. Ashley and Monique burst through the doors, laughing.

"Oh, there you guys are," Ashley said. "We've been looking for you. What'd you do with the tour guide?"

"Ditched her. Meet our new friends, Samantha and Katrina," Corbin said.

"Hi," I said. Corbin put his arm back around me and Ashley raised her eyebrows.

"You know, whatever. Anyways, we were about to call it a night. So, what do you guys want to do?" Lucas asked.

"Let's have a party," Monique said.

"Sure, but where?" asked Vanessa.

"Um, we could have a party in South Lounge," I said. Everyone agreed. "Katrina, babe, can you take them to South Lounge? I've got to stop by the Feath to get some party stuff." Katrina nodded.

"Do you need someone to go with you?" asked Lucas. "I mean, to help you carry your stuff?"

"Um, sure," I said. Lucas and I set out for Featherman, while Katrina took the other eight stars, and The Guy, back to the South Lounge. When Lucas and I got to my room, I stopped. "Um, my room is kind of embarrassing. That and it's really messy."

"Oh, I don't mind," said Lucas.

"Okay," I said. I opened the door and we went inside. Lucas looked around.

"Um, like Zac much?" he asked, jokingly, referring to my Zac poster.

"Um, no, actually. I got that after I saw Hairspray. They didn't have any Link ones," I said. Lucas spun in a circle, taking in all of my decorations.

"So, you're pretty much obsessed, huh?" he said. "Posters, sheets, pillows, blankets, shirts, the whole caboodle." He looked at my desk. "Hey, look, it's me."

"Um, yeah," I said. "Would you believe that there hasn't been a picture of you since the 7th, and there's not another one until the 3rd?" He looked at me.

"Yes, actually," he said. I laughed. I began unplugging my iPod clock radio and putting it in its box. The box went into my duffel bag, along with both my iPods. "How can I help?" he asked.

"Um, that's okay, I don't really need any help packing," I said. I took both high school musical blankets off my bed and put them in the duffel as well. My pillows followed suit. I looked in my drawers for food, but there wasn't any. "Hope Katrina has food. Remind me I need to go to WalMart."

"You need to go to Walmart," Lucas said. I laughed. "Oh, cool. A guitar."

"Yeah. My mom seems to think that I can teach myself to play. I got it for my birthday," I said.

"Well, I can play," he said. He picked up my pink guitar and started strumming it. "Okay, this is out of tune."

"So tune it," I said. "I don't know how." He looked around. "We'll just take it with us." I threw him the guitar case and started rolling up my piano, and put that in its case. "I think that's all we need, unless you can think of anything else," I said, picking my backpack up again and throwing my cell phone into my purse.

"Nope," he said. He picked up my duffel and we left my room. On the way over to South, I called my mom on my cell phone.

"You'll never believe what I'm doing right now," I said to her.

"Um, writing one of those stories you write?" she said.

"Close, but no," I said. "I'm walking over to South. And you'll never guess who's with me."

"Katrina?" mom asked. I sighed.

"No, mother," I said. "Lucas. Lucas Grabeel." There was a pause. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"Is this like that time you were late calling and you tried to convince us you were in Wisconsin with Doug?" she asked. I sighed again.

"No, mother," I said. "Oh, well, We're at South, now. I'm spending the night at Katrina's. Love you. Bye." I hung up the phone. "Okay, so that wasn't as cool as I thought it was going to be." Lucas laughed. Zac was waiting for us when we got to South. He opened the door and we followed him into the lounge. I put down my back pack and CD case, and Lucas put down my duffel and guitar. "Okay, children, or everyone in this room who are older than me," I said. "This is your party. What do you want to do? Ooh, food." There was a whole bunch of food around. "How'd you get this much food?"

"We stopped by the Hang, and they gave us a whole bunch of free food," said Katrina.

"Because you took Zac?" I asked. Zac laughed.

"Yeah. Had to give all the screaming girls autographs," Zac said.

"No boys screaming over Ashley?" Lucas asked.

"Nope, not one," said Ashley. "Guess Jared is safe." Vanessa laughed nervously.

"Yeah, guess so," she said.

"Vanessa, I would just really like to say something. You and Zac, what you have couldn't be broken up by any screaming fan-girl. You guys are special," I said. "I quote myself: 'Just face the facts. Zanessa is the hottest couple, and no one can break them up.'"

"Where'd that one come from?" Zac asked.

"Um, I made it up in one of my stories," I said.

"She writes about the high school musical people constantly," Katrina said.

"Shut up," I said.

"Okay. So which one of us says that?" Lucas asked.

"Um, Ryan," I said. "But that's not important. My point is that Vanessa shouldn't be so insecure about this whole thing. Your relationship is special." Vanessa smiled the first smile I'd seen her have all afternoon. "I have always wanted to say that to you guys." Zac laughed.

"So, out of curiosity, why aren't you one of the screaming girls?" Vanessa asked.

"I don't know. I'm not really the type to do something that everyone else does. My sister, for instance, she got this insane crush on Zac Efron, the hottest guy in the world, as she says. And I have a tendency to disagree with everything she says. I'm not saying that you're not hot," I added, to the look on Zac's face, "but let's just say, you're not my type." They seemed happy with this answer.

"Come on guys, enough talking. Where are the tunes? I want to dance," said Monique.

"Me too," said Corbin and Lucas. I smiled and passed my iPod to Monique. She started sifting through it.

"Oh, you have great songs," she said. I blushed. The only thing on that iPod was Show Tunes and Disney. "Show tunes and Disney. That's what we're all about." I set up my iPod clock radio to play the songs on. "Come on, let's dance boys." She pushed the play button and I got even redder. High School Musical, of course. What Time is It to be precise. Ashley and Zac stood up to dance as well.

"Come on, V, dance," said Ashley.

"I don't feel like it," Vanessa said. "Why doesn't Samantha dance with you?" I looked at her.

"Really?" I said. Vanessa shrugged. "Wow." I helped Corbin and Zac move all the furniture aside, so that no one collides, as Lucas was saying. I laughed. "that's what you said when…never mind." I blushed. As we waited for the dance part, Olesya and Vanessa were talking with Chris and Ryne. I figured they would dance eventually. Dancing is a major part of their lives. Then it happened.

"Live it up, party down, that's what the summer's all about! What time is it? Summertime is finally here, yeah," my iPod sang. We all jumped into motion and danced until the end of the song.

"Wow," said Olesya, who had been watching. "You're good."

"Thanks," I said.

"I think you could even make Zac look good," Lucas said.

"Hey!" Zac said.

"No, I'm not that good," I said.

"No, you really are," said Ashley. "Have you ever considered a career in dancing?"

Dancing, singing, acting, choreography, writing, Biology, Political Science, Art, you name it, I've career aspirations about it," I said. Katrina laughed.

"She talks about high school musical constantly. Can't get the iPod out of her ears for a second," she said.

"Shush," I said. Zac's cell phone began ringing.

"Hello?" he said to it. "Oh, hey, man. No, what's up? Oh, can we stay here? Sure. See you tomorrow. Yep. Flight's at three? Okay, cool. Thanks." Everyone in the room (including The Guy, who had lapsed into silence) was looking at him. "Um, driver. We fly out at 3 tomorrow afternoon and we have until then to make the decision about College Musical. But I think this place is perfect." Corbin and Lucas cheered.

"Sounds great," said Vanessa. The others all agreed.

"So is our flight at three, too? Or are we not cool enough to fly with the rest of the cast?" Chris asked. Zac cringed.

"Actually, your flight's on Sunday at 10am," Zac said. Ryne rolled his eyes. "But you're cool enough to fly with us. You're just…I'm not in charge of the planes, okay?" Ryne and Chris laughed.

"Chill, man," Chris said. "What other songs you got on here?" He took my iPod and skipped through it. "Oh, I like this one." It was All for One. Vanessa laughed and got off the couch.

"I'll dance this time," she said. Ryne, Chris, and Olesya all nodded and we moved even more furniture aside. I went to sit down, but Vanessa stopped me. "You know, we're a person short." She pointed to Lucas. I thought I was going to have a panic attack.

"Whoa, really? I get to dance with Lucas?" I asked. Lucas shrugged. "That's only like my dream!" [Line from hairspray, if you didn't catch that one. I went and took a place beside for the first part of All for One. "Um, beware, I still don't know this whole thing." Lucas laughed.

"That's fine," he said. We danced. At the end, Lucas laughed again. "You weren't kidding."

"Hey, it's not my fault that you guys only teach a little of it for the dance along. I got the rest from the movie itself. Trust me, it's not easy."

"Your what time is it was amazing, though," Ashley said.

"Well, that was easy. The DVD has the extra on it," I said.

"What other dances do you know, Samantha" asked Olesya.

"Uh, well, We're All in this Together, Bop to the Top, What I've been Looking For, What Time is it, Work This Out, All for One, You are the Music in Me (Sharpay's Version), and parts of I Don't Dance, Fabulous, and Bet on It," I said. "And I'm not really trying to brag. Honest. I just don't have a life." Lucas laughed.

"Sounds like someone has aspirations of being Sharpay," he said.

"That was the original plan. My favorite people before I even watched the movie, my mom would ask, and I'd say Sharpay and Ryan. My sister's were always Troy and Gabriella. And she'd make me sing the Troy to her Gabriella, so I tried to make her my Ryan, but all she did was stand there, while I attempted to push her around, and she wouldn't dance," I said. "Coincidentally enough, the one song she would really dance to was I Don't Dance, but then we had a fight over who got to be who, and she stormed away. So, not to bore you, but then I got a beach chair out of the shed and set it up the in the driveway next to my ladder, and attempted Fabulous."

"So, in conclusion, you have huge aspirations to be Sharpay," Lucas said.

"Pretty much. Probably could have just said that," I said.

"I think that was cool. You had a ladder? For bop to the top?" Ashley said.

"Yeah, I dragged my old fisher price slide into the middle of the driveway to practice the whole ladder ordeal," I said. "Dad got pretty mad when I kept forgetting to drag it to one side after I was finished. I told him that Sharpay has stage people to do that for her. He told me that he wasn't going to be my stage person." Ashley and Lucas laughed.

"I'm curious as to your bop to the top," Ashley said. "Dance it with Lucas?" She pouted.

"As if I need asking," I said. Lucas and I positioned ourselves in the spot we had cleared. Ashley was in charge of the music. She eventually found the song and put it on. I was nervous as hell. I was about to dance Bop to the Top with Lucas Grabeel. I must have done it well, though, because when we were finished, both Ashley and Lucas were very impressed.

"Honestly, though, about that career in dancing," Ashley said.

"I know, I know, but my mom…she's insane. She's like, 'When you finish college, you can go to New York and try for some Broadway' and I'm like, "Mom, I know you think I'm this amazing singer, but I'd rather be dancing' and she's all like, 'Shouldn't you be writing a paper or something?' and I'd just sigh and hang up the phone," I said.

"Whoa, you sing too?" Zac asked. "I wanna hear her sing."

"Guys, I don't…no, that's embarrassing," I said. "I-fine. What do you want me to sing?"

"Got any karaoke on there?" Monique asked.

"Um, just the two Troyella duets and some songs from Hairspray," I said. "I might have the Grease karaoke CD in my CD case. Or, actually, I could take out my computer. There's karaoke for everything on Youtube," I said.

"What do you want her to sing?" Ashley asked the room at large. There was some dissention within the ranks, but eventually, they all agreed upon You are the Music in Me.

"Which version?" I asked, booting up my computer.

"Both," Vanessa cheered. The rest agreed. I rolled my eyes. I went onto youtube and found krazyutubefreak's piano solos.

"All right, you asked for it," I said. I pulled out a big dry erase marker that looked like a microphone from my duffel and threw it to Zac who caught it. "Gonna sing with me?" Zac laughed at the sight of the marker. I took another one and we stood up on the "stage". Ashley, still in charge of music, started the songs, and I went through both of them, with Zac Efron. I still couldn't quite believe it. After we finished both songs, with Olesya and the rest helping with the slower version, there was a lot of applause.

"I love that song," Vanessa said.

"Yeah, great job Samantha," said Lucas.

"I'm having an interesting moment in my head," I said.

"What?" Lucas asked.

"Um, I sort of…never mind," I said.

"Tell us," Zac said.

"Okay, so it's not really a big secret that I'm not the biggest Troyella supporter in the world," I said. "But that's not Zanessa," I added very quickly. "And so, I, uh, sort of, got the idea from a fan fiction that I read to redo the scripts for High School Musical and High School Musical 2, so that they're…well, Ryella. That's what I like to do. I write High School Musical fan fiction. What you guys just said reminded me of that part of the second one." I looked around, but none of the faces seemed angry.

"Um, can we read them?" Zac asked.

"Um, if you really want to," I said. I dug through my backpack to find the two scripts that I had just printed off in the computer lab that afternoon. "Here. The second one was hard, because the whole premise of the second movie is, well, you know. I still have to rewrite two songs, a task that was procrastinated until this weekend."

"Procrastination is not the answer," Katrina interrupted.

"Yeah, because you've never come into class 20 minutes late because you were finishing a project," I said. Both me and Katrina laughed. She actually did that once. I helped myself to the general refreshments, and after a while they had finished reading both scripts. "Well?" I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the results.

"First, these are really quite accurate," Zac said.

"Yeah, the first original script I found on a fansite. The second one I had to transcriptionate myself. Transcritpionate. That's my word. I invented it," I said. "Plus, I had some background information from the books, and a lot of good ideas from other fanfictions that I've written or read."

"If this had been the scripts, I would have done it," said Ashley.

"Me too," said Lucas. The rest of the cast agreed.

"You got rid of my solo," Vanessa complained.

"I'm sorry. It was a tossup between which couple I broke up, and it just made more sense for the other one," I said. "I even contemplated breaking both couples up, but it would have been much too complicated to finish in an afternoon."

"I love how it starts," Ashley said. "Sharpay going to see Wicked and her father bails on her."

"That's…well, it seemed appropriate," I said. "How about the second one?"

"I liked the side note from you, 'I love his face here'," Zac said.

"I do. It's one of my favorite parts in the movie. That and 'Took your advice. Sold it online. You've always wanted to spotlight. Now you've got it. Break a leg. Mah.' Love that," I said.

"Any other favorite parts?" Chris asked.

"Um, 'We are majorly skin tone compatible, Troy!'?" I asked. "And Troy's expressions throughout the entire Sharpay's version of You are the Music in me, oh, and "Everyday. Huh. I can't learn a new song!' I think that's just about it."

"Any from the first movie?" Vanessa asked.

"I don't know. Um, I enjoyed the trivia fact that the snow falling in the first scene is actually instant mashed potatoes, and that it's actually lemon lime drink in the milk cartons. Um, the first time I saw the first movie, I missed the part where Sharpay first says that her and Ryan are brother and sister, so when Taylor mentions it later, I was like 'What?! That's insane!'," I said. Lucas laughed.

"Yeah, we're pretty tight," Ashley said.

"One of my favorite lines from the first one is 'All I could remember was like pink jelly'. Out of curiosity, what is that about?" I asked. Zac shrugged.

"No idea," he said. "So these scripts are really great. If you think like this, you'll probably enjoy the next movie."

"I said I didn't want to know," I whined.

"No you didn't," Corbin said. "You said that the general plot synopsis that Disney's putting out was good enough for you."

"Okay, so I'm dying to know what happens," I said. "So, isn't everyone?"

"Uh, I was going to check with Kenny before asking this, but do you want to come to LA with us?" Zac asked.

"Are you kidding?" I asked. Zac shook his head no. "Yeah, I would. Why, though?"

"You're the only obsessed fan I've ever met who hasn't screamed their head off, demanding an autograph," Zac said. "And you're definitely Hollywood material." That was a lot of information to take in.

"But I couldn't just pack up and come with you tomorrow. I have… well, nothing to do, but I have a lot of stuff, and no money," I said. "And I have my mom and dad, and I'm sure they wouldn't just want me to…oh, what am I saying? Of course! But for what?"

"I'm sure we could find something for you to do," Lucas said. "Definite backup dancer in High School Musical 3, for starters. Maybe something speaking in College Musical. Maybe if we talked to Kenny we could get you something in the third one."

"Oh, wow," I said. "This is really unexpected. I mean, of course I'll come. This is incredible. Are you sure Kenny'll say it's okay?"

"Oh yeah, he said if we found anyone suitable…" Zac began, but his voice trailed off. "Can you excuse me for a second?" I nodded, and he turned around and began conversing in hushed whispers with the rest of the cast, minus Olesya, Ryne, and Chris.

"They always leave us out of everything," Chris said. "I know it's because we're not cool enough."

"Hey, speak for yourself," Olesya said. "I'm cool enough."

"Oh, yeah, just because you did a movie with Lucas first," Ryne said.

"Hey, kids, stop fighting," I said. "I'm sure you're all cool enough. Maybe someday you'll have your own movies." Zac and the rest turned back to me.

"So, to finish my sentence," he said, "Kenny said that if we found someone really talented in this icy place that we could bring you with us, and he'd consider them for a part."

"Wow, you guys, but…wow," I said. "I'll do it. This is an amazing opportunity. I've always wanted this. I just don't think I'll have time to fly out with guys tomorrow."

"You can fly out with us on Sunday," Olesya said.

"That'll make us feel plenty cool," said Ryne. I laughed.

"Can I?" I asked. Zac looked at his cast mates.

"Sure, sounds like a plan," he said. "So that's settled, Samantha's going with Olesya, Ryne, and Chris on Sunday."

"Why am I always last?" Chris asked.

"Because your name is normal," said Ryne. "Our names are cool." Chris sighed. I laughed.

"Sorry, you'll be first next time," Zac said.

"Okay," I said. "I guess I'm going to LA." I had to resist the urge to squeal again.

"You know, it's okay if you squeal," Corbin said.

"Um, thanks," I said. I took a deep breath and squealed. "Okay, now it's out of my system. Katrina!!!"

"Yeah?" Katrina said, looking up.

"Katrina, I'm going to LA!" I said.

"Whoa, you're not serious?" she said.

"Uh, yeah I am," I said. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We basically have tomorrow to get me moved out."

"Um, what?" Katrina asked. "What about school?"

"Katrina, I won't need it. I'm going to LA. I've got a shot at High School Musical," I said.

"Okay," she said. She went back to The Guy.

"Okay, that wasn't what I was expecting," I said, turning back to Zac and the others.

"Well, how about we put some more tunes on?" Monique said. The others cheered. We did Work this Out and We're All in this Together, and the cast kept being amazed.

"I still can't figure out Get'cha head in the Game, though, no matter how hard I try. I get all lost after the this part," I said, making a bad attempt at one of the parts of the dance.

"Yeah, that one's tricky," Lucas said.

"You didn't have to learn it," said Ryne. "That was your choice."

"Will you stop fighting? Ryne, Chris, you guys are just as cool as Lucas, Zac, and Corbin. And just as important to the cast," I said. "After all, what's High School Musical without Zeke and Jason?"

"Not much," said Chris. "You guys are dead without us."

"Oh, yeah," said Corbin. "I'm sure we could never survive." The boys laughed, and Ashley rolled her eyes.

"They have this argument constantly," she said to me. Vanessa nodded.

"Does anyone else feel really ridiculous at the end of Work This Out when there isn't those three beats to hit?" I asked. Vanessa and Olesya nodded.

"That's annoying that they're not on the soundtrack," Vanessa said.

"Let's listen to something else," said Ashley. She grabbed my iPod and started going through it. "Hey, kids! And Monique." I laughed. "Who wants to watch Lucas dance for us?" She pushed the play button, and You Got It filled the room. Lucas laughed, and grabbed my iPod.

"Who wants to watch Ashley dance?" he said, changing the song to Headstrong.

"I love this song," I said to no one in particular, humming along with it. "You're a honey kind of boy, you are. You're a talented kind of boy, you are. And that's just the kind of boy you are. Head up, hands up. These are Headstrong crazy days, when you're minds made up and the music plays. Meltdown, it's not a crush, in a hot, hot room, we're in a rush…"

"Uh-oh, Ash, looks like she's trying to give you a run for your money," Lucas said.

"Ha," I said. "I could never compare to Ashley Tisdale. She's amazing."

"You don't need to refer to her in the third person. She's right here," Ashley said.

"Come on, the Suite Life?" I said. "I mean, I haven't seen a lot of episodes, but I, um, really like the episode the Zac was in, and I really like the high school musical episode."

"So what's your favorite class? Upper. That's a great one," said Zac, who apparently wasn't taking part in the conversation that Corbin, Ryne, Chris, Vanessa and Olesya were having.

"Love that episode. It's hilarious," I said. "Mayor, governor, senator, president, talk show host. Once, those were my priorities exactly, and I'm not even joking."

"I like the high school musical episode, too," said Lucas.

"You watch the Suite Life?" I said.

"Of course!" he said. Ashley gave him a look. "Oaky, no I don't, but I saw that episode. I think Ashley's hilarious in hats."

"Funny, I could say the same thing about you," Ashley said.

"Hey, don't diss the hats," Lucas said.

"I like the hats. I've been trying to convince my brother to start wearing the hats for, like, six months, but he keeps insisting that he doesn't like high school musical," I said. "I love, though, how different Maddie and Sharpay really are. I mean, if I met them somewhere, I'd never believe they were…whatever, you know?"

"Yeah," Ashley said. "And apparently they don't look alike."

"Yeah, but only if you believe that Cole Sprouse looks like Zac Efron," I said. Ashley laughed. "Got a favorite part of that episode, Ashley?"

"Um, London Tipton's really great, really great, really great, London Tipton's really great and deserves the opposite of hate, which is love?" she said. Lucas laughed, as Ashley tried to recreate the awfulness of London's dance.

"Let's start with the number 8. It looks hard, but you just draw a snowman," Lucas said.

"Are you ready to Bop to the Top, because remember, we're all in this together," Zac said. "Okay, you're pushing it to the limit."

"Did everyone see that episode?" Ashley asked.

"Well, it came on right before the HSM2 premiere, I think everyone saw it," I said.

"Queiro puke," said Monique. "That's my favorite part." Ashley was blushing worse than ever.

"Why don't we ever make fun of one of you guys' shows?" said Ashley.

"Because we don't have shows," said Lucas. "We could make fun of Hairspray, I guess," he said.

"Kiss my ass," said Zac.

"Oh, look, he's started for us," I said. I grabbed my iPod and started Ladies' Choice karaoke. "Sing for us, Zac." Zac sighed and took my fake microphone and attempted his way through Ladies' Choice. Not the best singer in the world, I have got to say.

"Not the best singer in the world, I have got to say," said Vanessa.

"Ah, yes, well, that's why you love me," Zac said. They kissed.

"Ew," I said, laughing.

"Ew?" asked Ashley. "Seriously, how old are you?"

"She's fifteen," said Katrina, who apparently has selective hearing.

"Thanks," I said.

"Wow," said Lucas. "And you're in college?" I nodded. "Wow."

"Thanks," I said again.

"Yeah, that's amazing," said Monique. She looked impressed. She took my iPod again, and began skimming through the songs. "Oh, you have Legally Blonde!" She turned on Legally Blonde, and we all got really excited. Then Ashley started assigning roles.

"Okay, Vanessa, you can be Vivienne, I'll be Paulette, and Samantha can be Elle," Ashley said.

"Okay, and I'll be Brooke," said Monique.

"What about me?" said Olesya. Ashley thought.

"Greek Chorus?" Ashley said.

"Thanks," Olesya said.

"Okay, and Lucas can be Emmett and Zac can be Warner," said Vanessa. "And Corbin can be Callahan."

"Gee, thanks," Corbin said. "What about Chris and Ryne?"

"Um, are there any more parts?" Monique asked.

"Thanks, guys, we know we're not cool. But you don't have to rub it in," said Chris.

"Well, Olesya can be Enid, and You guys can fight over Sundeep Padadaman and Aaron Cohen, and all the other little parts, if you want," Monique said.

"And you can be Greek Chorus with me, and Vanessa can help since Vivienne doesn't have much singing parts," said Olesya. Vanessa, Chris and Ryne agreed. I laughed. About an hour and a half later, we were all giggling and laughing our way through the finale. Chris had been reassigned to be Kyle, and it was hilarious. I collapsed on a couch in a fit of laughter after "Emmett Forrest, please make me the happiest woman I know" and the small part that followed it. I was bright red, and everyone was laughing hysterically, especially Katrina and The Guy, who had comprised our audience.

"God, that was hilarious. Besides the fact that that's probably how Lucas would react if someone ever proposed to him," Ashley said.

"You know it," Lucas said. I laughed, still rolling around on the couch.

"Hey guys, what time is it?" I asked. "No serious pun intended." Lucas laughed. Zac looked at his wrist, which did _not_ have a watch on it.

"Like, 9:30?" Zac said. Vanessa pulled her cell phone from her pocket.

"9:42," she said. "You're getting better."

"Um, can I ask the whole thing with Troy and not wearing a watch?" I said.

"Oh, yeah," said Zac. "That's me. I don't wear a watch, and somehow I always know what time it is."

"Is that because it's summertime, or whatever the song was?" Katrina asked.

"No, it's just a thing," Zac said.

"Okay," I said. "It's pretty hilarious."

"So, what do we do now?" asked Monique. "Especially because we just performed an entire musical."

"We could do another one," Ashley suggested.

"Nah," said Corbin. "Let's watch a movie. What'cha got?"

"Not much, you can look," I said. They took my CD case and flipped through it.

"Like musicals much?" Lucas said.

"Maybe," I said.

"Let's watch these," said Vanessa. She pulled out the High School Musical movies. I rolled my eyes. "We haven't seen them in a while."

"Yeah," said Ashley. "And Samantha can recite the whole thing, because she knows it."

"You guys sound like my dad," I said. I sat down on the couch, and we watched both movies straight through.

"And then what happens?" asked Katrina. I laughed.

"That's the great mystery," I said. "October 24th." Zac laughed.

"But you'll know," he said.

"Yeah, but I'm not telling anyone. It's a secret," I said.

"Oh I see. You're the honest one," Lucas said. I laughed.

"You seriously wouldn't tell anyone?" Corbin said.

"No," I said. "I wouldn't like to know beforehand. It should be a surprise when you walk into the theater and watch it."

"Wow," said Lucas again.

"Thanks," I said a third time. By this time, it was pretty late at night, and I was tired. "God, I'm tired," I said.

"Yeah, me too," said Ashley. "Should probably be getting back to the hotel."

"Well, actually, my roommates are all gone for the weekend. I've got six beds," Katrina said.

"Well, there are ten extra, if you hadn't noticed," said The Guy.

"We'll find room. They have a futon, too," I said. "Come on." I gathered all my stuff, and we went up to the second floor, where Katrina's room was. When we got there, the boys were nice, and gave the girls all the beds. Katrina and I took her room, Monique and Olesya took Nicole and Chelsea's room, and Ashley, Vanessa, and Zac took Morgan and Brielle's room [which coincidentally also has a poster of Zac in it. Lucas, Corbin, Ryne, and Chris fought over the futon and couch. I walked out of Katrina's room. "Boys. Please stop arguing. Just go take a couch or two from the Lounge," I said, opening the fridge. "Just make sure you put it back when you're finished." I closed the fridge, not having found any good food in there. I rummaged through a cupboard, but didn't end up finding anything good. Ten minutes later, Lucas and Corbin were back with a couch. I was actually surprised they got it up the stairs. I rolled my eyes and went back into Katrina's room, where she had actually fallen asleep.


	2. Saturday is a long day

**Chapter 2 (February 23, 2008)**

I woke up the next morning to the sounds of a guitar. I smiled and rolled out of bed. It was Lucas, obviously. He was entertaining Corbin, Chris, Ryne, and Monique.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Lucas said.

"Come on, it's gotta be, like nine," I said.

"9:54 actually," he said.

"Yeah, well, quiet hours are until 10," I said, looking again in the cupboards for some good food, which I didn't find.

"Yeah, we heard. The RA's already been here," said Monique. "We said we'd be quieter."

"Yeah, I'm actually surprised you didn't wake up earlier," said Corbin.

"Yeah, well, last year I didn't wake up for the fire alarm," I said.

"That's probably bad," said Chris.

"That's what everyone says," I said. "There's nothing good for breakfast in here!"

"Sh, Vanessa and Zac are still sleeping," said Monique.

"What about Olesya and Ashley?" I asked.

"Not sure. They left this morning. Said they might go to the beach," Lucas said.

"They are insane. It's freezing outside," I said.

"It's alright," Ryne said.

"Okay, I'm from here, and I think it's cold. There's something wrong," I said. Katrina came out from her room. "And how are you?"

"Hungry," said Katrina.

"There's nothing good, I already looked," I said. Katrina sighed and opened the door to the closet. "Oh."

"Amy's food stash," Katrina explained.

"No wonder I couldn't find anything good," I said, taking some of the food and snagging a spot on a couch. Katrina followed suit.

"Are you really going to LA tomorrow?" she said. I looked at Lucas.

"Well, that's the plan," I said.

"We should probably get you packed, then," said Corbin.

"Uh, yeah. My room's a mess," I said. Twenty minutes later, Lucas, Zac, Corbin, Ashley, and I were standing in my room.

"Well, this is a major disaster zone," said Corbin. Lucas laughed and put down my duffel bag. "Hey, look, it's Zac."

"And Vanessa," I said, pointing to the cover of Seventeen that I had ripped off and taped to the Zac poster.

"And me," said Lucas, indicating my desk. "And Ashley, I suppose."

"There seems to have been an oversight," Corbin said. "Where am I?" I shrugged and pulled out my laminated Got Milk poster. "That's all?"

"Sorry," I said. "I could only get one poster when I got the Zac one, or I would have gotten you too. Really." Lucas looked put out. "And they don't sell a Lucas one, or that would have been the first one on the wall. Happy now?" Ashley laughed.

"So, let's get to work," she said. By the time we had to go and meet the rest for lunch, we had made a lot of progress. There was a knock on my door.

"I'll get it," I said. I opened it to find Sean, a boy who lives down the hall. "Can I help you?" I asked.

"There's a big commotion coming from your room, for it being just you– holy shit, is that Zac Efron?" he said. I sighed.

"Yeah, what do you want?" I said. Sean immediately ran down the hall and banged on Jackie and Elizabeth's door. I shut the door, not really wanting to have to deal with this again. "So, there are fan-boys as well, on occasion, huh?" Zac laughed and nodded. "Anyways, it almost time for lunch. How are we doing?"

"Well, you've got all the stuff you wanted packed, and we're just trying to box up the rest of it. Or at least I am," said Ashley, frowning at the boys, who could have been being more helpful. "And the room's clean."

"Thanks for your help, Ashley. Couldn't have done it by myself," I said.

"Oh, no problem. We're all in this together, right?" she said. I laughed.

"I have always wanted someone to say that to me. No one ever will," I said. "Thanks."

"Girls, quit the chit-chat, I'm hungry," Zac said. There was another knock on the door.

"Go away, Sean," I said, opening the door again. Sean was standing there with Elizabeth and Jackie. "Fine. Zac, come here. Zac, this is Sean, Bizz, and Jackie. They live down the hall."

"Hey," said Zac, waving. Bizz and Jackie squealed. Sean was going insane.

"Can we _not_ cause a commotion, here?" I said. "I'm trying to get this stuff together." I closed the door again and rolled my eyes. "Sean was Zac for the Lights, Camera, Action dance."

"And who were you?" Ashley asked.

"A really failed attempt at Vanessa, but we didn't go together," I said. "I was Sharpay for Halloween, though. My skirt's still in the closet."

"I noticed," she said. "Accurate, minus the rhinestones."

"Well, actually, I thought of bedazzling it, but I never got around to it," I said.

"Come on, we're gonna be late for lunch," Corbin said. I laughed, and we left my room and headed back to South, where the driver had been instructed to wait for us. We all (including Katrina and The Guy) piled into the limo and went to the Portland jetport. We had some lunch at one of the little restaurants. I'd never been to the jetport before.

"So this is picturesque. What are we gonna do in a jetport for two hours?" asked Chris.

"We could go shopping," Vanessa said. I rolled my eyes. "Hey, where's Lucas?" I looked around and realized he was missing.

"He was here at lunch," Monique said.

"Oh, there he is," Ashley said. She pointed down a hallway, where Lucas was going.

"Where you been, man?" Corbin asked.

"Switched my flight. I'm going tomorrow," he said.

"Um, okay?" said Zac. "Why?"

"Felt like it," Lucas said.

"Okay. Your call," said Corbin. Chris was doing a victory dance. "Dude."

"Hey, Lucas is taking my flight. That means I'm cool and you're not," said Chris. He slapped five with Ryne. Olesya rolled her eyes.

"He probably just wants to make sure Samantha is okay," she said.

"Oh, like we couldn't handle that?" said Chris. Lucas laughed.

"Yeah, where were you this morning?" Lucas asked. Chris made a face and looked at the ground.

"Fine. Be that way," said Chris. Vanessa laughed.

"So, are we going shopping or not?" Vanessa asked. Zac smiled and they went flouncing down an aisle. Lucas and Ashley rolled their eyes and followed after them. Katrina and The Guy went in a separate direction, and Corbin and Monique went with them. Chris, Ryne, Olesya and I all went down a third aisle in hopes of finding a suitable suitcase for myself. We actually did find one, it was pink, though.

"Well, it's very Sharpay," I said. "Couldn't we get something green?" We found one, but I didn't like it. The others were all too pricey.

"We'll just go to WalMart later," Chris said. "I hear there is one around here somewhere. Or I heard something about a mall…"

"Sure, Chris," I said. There was a silence. I cast around for something to talk about. "So what do you guys think of High School Musical on Ice?" Ryne laughed.

"Good idea lost on figure skaters," he said.

"Well, I think it's a great idea, except for we're not in it," Chris said.

"I think it's a great idea anyways," Olesya said.

"I don't know. Nothing's ever as good on Ice. I'd need to see it first. Like The Concert. See, I've never seen the concert," I said.

"Why?" Chris asked.

"No real reason, except for I never got around to buying it," I said.

"Is it because Zac's not in it?" Olesya said. I sighed.

"Don't act like my mother," I said. "I'll get around to seeing it eventually. I've seen parts of it and it looks really good."

An hour later, we all met up at the departure board. Lucas and Ashley had ice creams.

"So Gate 6A. Three o'clock. Nice," Corbin said.

"Find anything good shopping, V?" asked Monique. Vanessa shook her head.

"Just souvenirs, and ice cream," she said.

"It's good stuff," said Ashley, licking her ice cream cone.

"Should probably get to the gate. Security's gonna be horrible," Corbin said.

"It's you guys. Don't you have VIP Treatment?" Chris asked. Lucas laughed.

"Yeah, right. Only Zac gets that. No one has heard of the rest of us," said Monique.

"Oh, sure," Ryne said. "Zac's the cool one. Why can't we be cool?"

"Didn't we already have this conversation?" I asked.

"I'm telling you, they do this constantly," Vanessa said. I rolled my eyes and laughed with her.

Eventually we all got to the gate and said goodbye to Zac, Vanessa, Ashley, Corbin, Monique and The Guy, who had switched with Lucas. I still couldn't tell you why The Guy was hanging out with the rest. We watched them go through Security and board the plane.

"Okay, well, what are we going to do now?" I asked.

"We have to get you back to your room to finish packing," Lucas said.

"Oh, I see how it is," I said. "You're the responsible one."

"Bet on it," Lucas said. I resisted the urge to laugh, because it wasn't that funny. Two hours later, Chris, Olesya, Ryne, Katrina, Lucas and I were sitting in Katrina's room's living room. I was flipping through a magazine I had bought at the jetport.

"Any good stuff in there?" Chris asked, attempting to look over my shoulder.

"Hmm, let's see," I began. "Zac and Vanessa are evidently fighting again. Uh…Miley Cyrus might have a crush on Mitchel Musso… Emily Osment is too busy for a boyfriend… The Sprouse twins have the sweetest smiles… Lucas looked better blond… Ooh, look a poster of Nick Jonas." I stopped flipping pages and took out the center poster of Nick Jonas. "He's cute."

"What'd'ya mean I looked better blond?" Lucas asked. I raised my eyebrows.

"Are we _really_ going to have this conversation?" I asked. "Everyone knows the brown hair _just_ makes you look older. And a little creepy." I took a look at his face, and almost burst out laughing. "Can anyone back me up here? Lucas just looks better blond!" Olesya nodded her agreement. "Thank you." I continued flipping through the magazine. "Ashley and Jared are evidently fighting as well. Oh, look, a day in the life on Zac Efron. Hmm…8am…breakfast…9:30am…work out…10:30am…basketball…" I couldn't get any farther than that, because the thought of Zac being really good at basketball, as the article said he was, was just too hilarious.

"Oh, sure," Chris said. "He's the one that's really good at basketball. Yeah, right. Oh, look, 6:30pm…hot date with Vanessa. Aw. That just makes you want to puke, doesn't it?"

"Hey!" Olesya said.

"You said we only had to be nice when they're here. They're not here," Ryne pointed out. I rolled my eyes, trying not to get involved with Zanessa's problems. My personal theory was that Zac and Ashley were really the ones going out, and that Vanessa and Jared were together. Jared just seems more like Vanessa's type. And Zashley is just _so_ adorabibble (my word. Or maybe it's Tigger's). I continued flipping through the magazine.

"Raven has a new movie coming out. College Road Trip," I said. "Where have I heard that name before?" Lucas froze. "What?"

"He's in that," Chris explained.

"Oh, that's probably where I've heard it before. 'Hits theaters March 7th'. Ah, well," I said. Lucas was still frozen, but his eyes swiveled to look at me.

"He wants to know if you want to know what that's about," Chris translated.

"Sure," I said. "If it'll make him move again." Lucas unfroze a little, and ten minutes later I was practically rolling on the floor laughing. "No freaking way. That's hilarious. I can't wait to see it." I started flipping through the magazine again. "Ah. Here's a good article. It's evidently about how Zac, Vanessa, and Ashley are treated as the 'stars' of the general franchise."

"Mm," was all Chris had to say about this.

"No, but really, I've noticed this. I was at Claire's a few weeks ago…it's a jewelry store…and I was looking through the HSM merch, and there was like, little lockets with Zac, and little Zac and Vanessa pics, and stuff with Ash plastered all over it, and I actually even found a little dogtag thing with Corbin on it. Not a single thing with Lucas or Monqiue. At it makes me really angry on occasion," I attempted to explain.

"Because you'd rather wear a necklace with Lucas on it, than on with Zac?" Ryne asked.

"Hell, yeah!" I said, without thinking. "I mean, yeah."

"But instead you settled for…" Chris prompted.

"Heart shaped earrings with Zac in them, and a matching necklace that says 'Link!' on the other side, both from Hairspray, and a T for Troy necklace," I said, grudgingly. "I was actually surprised they sold a Ryan standup. Totally getting it for Christmas. It's gonna be awesome. He'll hang with Will, Hayden, and Legolas." Lucas looked a little speechless. "Oh, come on, what did you really expect? My desk is covered with pictures of you. And I wouldn't take a look through my hard drive, if I were you."

"That's…comforting," Lucas said.

"No, but seriously, she's right. You're the Wildcat six," Olesya said, surprising everyone.

"No," Lucas said. "We're the Wildcat ten. We're _all_ in this together."

"You sound like you're straight out of some kind of Disney movie, you know that?" I asked, somewhat rhetorically. Ryne and Lucas looked at each other, shrugged and nodded. "You guys are dorks." There was a pause while they all shot me funny looks. "And I'm a dork, too." I put the magazine aside and picked my laptop off of the coffeetable.

"Whatcha doing?" Chris asked.

"I just had some interesting inspiration for a story," I said. I began writing, and was all-too-aware that Lucas was attempting to read over my shoulder. "I honestly wouldn't read this if I was you. You definitely wouldn't like it."

"Okay," Lucas said. "I suddenly decided I don't need to know."

"I want to know!" Chris said.

"No, you don't," I said. "Really."

"Fine," Chris said. "Remind me to look through there while you're asleep."

"Fine," I replied. "Remind me to password protect my computer and hide it somewhere where Chris can't find it."

"Seriously, just tell us what you're doing," Olesya said. "They might give up."

"Doubtful," I said. "I'm just writing."

"Ryella, or…" Lucas prompted.

"I'm not telling you _anything_," I said. "But the word I'm about to write is 'Troy'."

"That's not even helpful in the slightest," Lucas said.

"And now the one I'm writing is 'the'," I continued.

"Now you're being even more than less than unhelpful," Ryne said.

"Wanna know something, straight from me, an author?" I asked. The boys nodded, while Olesya read my magazine. "When I tend to think about the characters, they behave in ways that are _so_ much different from you guys in real life, it's just uncanny. When I see the name 'Lucas' the only thing that registers to me is you, but when I see 'Ryan', I think of…well, you get the picture. That, and Ryan's only seventeen," I finished very lamely.

"He is really old," Chris said helpfully. "Lucas is ancient."

"Not as old as Monique," Ryne reminded him.

"Right," Chris said. "Anyways, it's Lucas' turn to tell us something embarrassing now."

"Why?" Lucas asked, incredulous.

"Because Samantha did, and now it's your turn," Ryne said. "Go." Lucas thought.

"We've been trying to get him to spill the beans on his 'private life' for weeks," Chris said. "Haven't come up with any good ways though, besides getting him drunk."

"We are _not_ getting him drunk!" Olesya protested.

"I _know_ that," Chris said. "Geez." Lucas looked ready to speak. "Go, man. Tell us your stuff."

"Okay, so there's this girl," Lucas said.

"Is this girl your girlfriend?" I asked.

"He wishes," Chris said. "He won't stop talking about her."

"But doesn't he have a girlfriend?" I asked. "Emily…something?"

"Yeah," Ryne said. "But he's got a secret crush."

"Grownups get secret crushes?" I asked.

"I know, right? It freaked me out, too," Chris said. "Anyways, Lucas, go on."

"So, there's this girl, who I'm sort of crushing on," Lucas said.

"We know that part," Chris said. "Go on."

"And I can't stop thinking about her. She's…perfect," Lucas said.

"Are you gonna make us guess who she is?" I asked.

"Maybe," Lucas said. "If you wanted to guess. I doubt you'd get it."

"Is she…female?" Chris asked.

"What the hell kind of question is that?" I asked.

"Well, it _is_ Lucas," Chris said. "You have to be careful with these kind of things."

"But Vanessa said–" I began, but I trailed off, when Lucas sent me a look. "Anyways, _is_ she female?"

"Like duh," Lucas said. "Hence the 'she'."

"Okay, fine," Ryne said. "Do you know her from a movie you did?"

"Yeah…" Lucas said. "Since when did I have a personal life?"

"Was said movie a _Disney_ movie?" Ryne asked.

"Yeah…" Lucas said. "Disney owns our souls. And High School Musical, so this story technically belongs to them, and whoever owns it, not Samantha, and in no way, shape, or form, should she be sued."

"Is she younger than you?" Olesya asked, suddenly taking interest.

"Yeah…" Lucas said, "but then, so are lots of people."

"He looks like he's twelve without a hat on," Chris said to me.

"Ohmigod, I think the same thing," I said back. Lucas scowled, so they continued with their guessing game.

"But older than 18," Olesya continued.

"Yeah…" Lucas said. They were very good at this game. I just watched, not having much to say.

"Does she have brown hair?" Ryne asked.

"No?" Lucas said. "Not usually."

"Then, she's blonde," Chris said.

"Usually," Lucas said.

"Oh! Oh, pick me!" I said, suddenly, but before anyone could call on me, the fire alarm went off. "Are you kidding me?" We went outside the building to await the turning off of the alarm, Lucas flipping up his hood as he went, to avoid being recognized, even there was really no point. The rest didn't have to worry, no one knew who they were. While outside, I pulled Lucas aside.

"What?" he asked.

"You like Ashley?!" I demanded. Lucas looked utterly flabbergasted.

"How'd you figure that out?" he asked, looking around to make sure no one was listening.

"It's not that difficult. And I'm not stupid," I said. "I'm not really trying to comb through every backup dancer and extra that's ever been in a movie with you. I actually kind of figured it was Ashley."

"So?" Lucas said. "Maybe I've got a thing for Ashley."

"Well, I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't, because I think it's a fabulous pairing," I said. "But, be careful. She's got a boyfriend. God, can you imagine what people would think of you two being together? Especially after that whole Suite Life nonsense about the kissing thing." He frowned at me. "You know, where they had to get Zac to do a part because it involved kissing, and the whole brother-sister dynamic would be weird…. This ringing any bells?"

"Yeah," Lucas said. "That's why I shouldn't tell anyone. _Because_ we have this brother-sister dynamic."

"But you're _not_ brother and sister, and that's what makes you different from Sharpay and Ryan," I said. "You aren't Ryan Evans. You are Lucas Grabeel. And you can get the girl."

"Yeah!" said Lucas, confidently. "Thanks."

"Anytime," I said. When the alarm was turned off, we proceeded back up the stairs to Katrina's room and resumed our former positions on the couches and in the kitchen. I was grinning almost evilly, and they wouldn't stop staring. Finally I gave in. "I know who he likes."

"Ooh, tell us," Chris said.

"I'm not saying a word," I said. "Besides the fact that they would be great together. Or, should I say…Fabulous?" Lucas's face turned into a frown as expressions on the other three's faces turned into ones of disbelief.

"You've got a crush on A.Tizz?" Chris finally said to Lucas, who was red like some kind of red fruit.

"I didn't say it," Lucas said. "And I'm pleading the fifth here."

"I'm not sure, but I don't think the fifth amendment applies here," Ryne said. I refused to say a word and went back to writing. There was a long silence in which Lucas continued to glare out the window and I continued writing.

"'Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous'," I said to myself while typing. All heads turned to me. I didn't notice and kept writing. "Lumdadadadeedadoo." I looked up and across the room to think of what to type next and realize everyone was staring. "What?"

"Nothing," said Olesya, going back to my magazine.

"Lucas, I didn't figure it'd hurt to tell them," I said. "It's not like they're going to run off and tell Ashley."

"But now it's not a secret crush," Lucas said.

"So?" I asked. "It stopped becoming a secret when you told us about it. It became a mystery. And they would've figured it out eventually, they're not stupid."

"Yeah, okay," Lucas said. "Is it dinnertime yet?"

"I don't think so," Ryne said. "It's still light out."

"Anyways, it would explain all the flirting," I said. Lucas's eyes got really wide and his head snapped back to look at me.

"I was _not_ flirting!" he protested.

"Oh come _on_," I said. "It was totally obvious. Did you buy her ice cream too?"

"Yeah," he grumbled. "But I wasn't flirting. Anyways, she doesn't think of me like that." I suddenly had an idea, and started looking through the (many, many, many) files on my computer for something that could help the situation.

"'Lucas is like the brother I never had'," I quoted.

"Where is that from?" Lucas asked.

"What, I'm not allowed to have funnies on my computer?" I asked. "It's from an interview. And it's not in the least bit helpful."

"No, it isn't," Lucas said.

"'I can't fly on a broom or any other cleaning instrument'," I quoted again.

"Are you ever going to say something helpful?" Lucas asked.

"Maybe," I said. "If I run out of funny things to say." Did I mention I don't own Return to Halloweentown? I pulled up another document, and this time, determined to see if it was any help, Lucas looked over my shoulder. I blushed (really, really red) when I saw what was inside it, and tried to close it but he stopped me and stole my laptop out of my lap.

"'If you like the way Lucas Grabeel shakes his hips, copy and paste this into your profile'," Lucas quoted. He looked at me.

"Everyone does," I said. "My mom does too, but I tell her that's gross."

"Whatever," Lucas said, doing some other stuff on my computer. "Why do you have about a billion pictures of us on here?"

"I told you, you don't want to look through there," I reminded him. Ryne stole my laptop from Lucas, and began looking through it himself. He started laughing, and I rolled my eyes, and went into Katrina's bedroom to get a blanket. When I got back, Ryne, Chris, and Lucas were all crowded around my computer screen laughing. "I'm suddenly happy I parent proofed that thing last week."

"We're not teasing you," Ryne said. I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, yes we are."

"I thought so," I said. "It's dinnertime, though."

"Did you know you have a document on here that reads 'Troyella Forever' declaring that you'll never go over to the dark side of…Troypay?" Chris asked.

"I…what?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "It's right here."

"There's an interesting story behind here," Lucas said. "I can tell."

"Um…so I got HSM Barbie dolls for Christmas. Don't laugh!" I warned. "And I was playing with them, and I was playing around, while watching HSM2, and my sister kept getting mad cuz I was having them act out the whole movie, cuz, of course, I know it by heart, right? And my mom happened to mention something about her opinion of Ryan, which made me laugh at the time, but then I just kept noticing each time I watched the movie…and it just stuck. And if you write Ryella, it's just not right to have Zekepay, and Chaylor, and Jelsi, because then who does Troy end up with?"

"You didn't notice Ryan had a crush on Gabriella the first seven hundred times you watched the movie?" Katrina asked. "Even I picked that one up."

"Um, no," I said. "I thought he was gay." Everyone looked at me. "What? He wears pink and gets really excited about Ashton Kutcher. Come _on_. I thought my gaydar was better than _that_. Oh, and the whole jazz squares thing."

"It's a crowd favorite! Everyone loves a good jazz square!" Lucas protested.

"I know," I said. "Still…" Everyone was still looking at me. "I'm hungry here!" The six of us decided to go to dinner, which happened without major incident. On the way back, I was walking through the snow with my iPod in my ears, and I forgot anyone was around, and started dancing I do when I'm walking alone. No one said anything until we got to Katrina's building, by which point they were all staring at me. "What?" I asked.

"You look funny," Chris commented.

"I do _not_," I protested.

"You're walking around shaking your head in time to music that is so loud you're going to be deaf by the time you're 21, mouthing lyrics, and on occasion breaking into dance, all the while everyone that passes is staring at you, and you don't notice. I'd say you look funny," Chris said.

"Whatever," I said. "Katrina, babe, isn't there a dance tonight?"

"Yeah, it's the Valentine's Dance," she said.

"Wasn't Valentine's last week?" Ryne asked.

"Well, yeah, but the dance is tonight, evidently," I said. "You guys wanna go?"

"Are you really asking us our opinion, or are you going to make us anyways?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, you guys are going, whether you like it or not. I thought I'd ask your opinion," I said. "Be nice, you know, whatever. Next time, I'll just insist."

"Did you just get boys to agree to go to a dance with us?" Katrina whispered to me. I nodded, grinning. This was going to be fun.

When eight o'clock rolled around, we were all dressed up, and headed to the campus center for the dance. It turned out to be a lovely affair. Olesya and Ryne managed to match, somehow, so we decided they looked good together, so they reluctantly danced together. Hey, it's like Jelsi, except in real life. I was reluctant to leave Katrina alone with anyone let alone some kind of famous person, but she swore to be on her best behavior, and I let her take Lucas.

"Are you sure you want to go to this dance?" Chris asked me, as I had complained of a headache before we got there.

"Chris, this is the first dance I've had an escort to since I was in high school," I said. "There is no way I'm missing this." The Valentine's Dance, put on by the Musical Theatre club (that's my club!!), was a great success. My favorite part about my club putting on a dance, is that there was random showtunes interspersed with the regular pop songs. La Vie Boheme was a big thing. (We had done La Vie Boheme the year before, and we still knew all the choreography, and performed it for the rest. My high school did this with Thriller once. It was cool.) The dance was a great success, and by midnight, I was exhausted. Walking back to Katrina's room (mine was empty except for boxes of stuff by this point), I got a call on my cell phone from my mom.

"What?" I demanded of her when I picked it up.

"Where have you been?! I've been trying to call you all day, but the call wouldn't go through," she said.

"I've been hanging out with Lucas and them," I said. "And we went to the jetport in a limo earlier."

"Will you drop the whole Lucas thing? It was funny. Now stop," she said.

"Mom, Lucas is really here," I said. "Even talk to him." I heard her sigh on the other side of the phone, as I passed the phone to Lucas. "Lucas, talk to my mother, and don't mention LA."

"Hello?" Lucas said to my phone. "Yes. Yes, I'm Lucas. Yes, from High School Musical. Yes. No, she was with Chris. No, we were at a dance. Because I'm eight years older than she is. Well, why wouldn't I know? I'm not doing anything with your daughter. Yes, I have a girlfriend. No, I'm not with Vanessa. What? No, of course not. Why would you think that? She wants to talk to you again," he added to me, handing me my phone back.

"Don't interrogate my friends, mother," I said to the phone.

"Whatever," my mother said. "Are you in for the night?"

"Yeah, I'm at Katrina's again," I said. "I'll call you tomorrow." She might have said something about boys in my room as I hung up the phone, but I could care less. I was tired, and all I wanted was sleep. I just wandered into Katrina's room, and collapsed into her roommates bed, not even caring about the argument Lucas, Olesya and the boys were having about sleeping spaces and slept.

**A/N: My mom is evidently going to be something of a villain in this story. Next chapter: I go to LA and reconnect with Zac and them. In answer to your question, yes, I have recently decided that if I could date any of the HSM cast, it would be Christopher Warren, Jr., who plays Zeke, because he is awesome. Well, if I couldn't date Lucas, that is, because he is eight years older than me, which is creepy to think about, especially because I'm taller than he is.**

**I don't own HSM or its cast, or their souls, or RENT, or anything, including my school, where this chapter is set (and the jetport, where I've never actually been). So, yeah, whatever.**

**Samantha.**

**Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	3. Flying to California

**Chapter 3 (Sunday, February 24, 2008)**

As it turned out, sleep was kind of not an option. We had to get up really, really early in order to pack up and get on the stupid ten o'clock flight. Lucas knocked on the bedroom door around 5am.

"Samantha, time to get up," he said.

"You can come in, but Katrina's asleep," I said. Lucas opened the door, and stared at me. I was sitting on Katrina's roommate's bed, with my laptop in my lap, and earbuds in my ears.

"Did you sleep at all?" he asked, exasperated.

"You're not my mommy," I said. "And, _no_, I didn't. I can sleep on the plane. Why do we have to get up so early?"

"Security," Lucas said. "And you still have to pack most of your stuff." He left the room, and I moved with my laptop into the living area, where Ryne was sitting on the couch, yawning, with a bowl of cereal on his lap. I didn't ask.

"So, aren't you going to ask me what I was doing?" I asked.

"Not really," Lucas said, shoving things into the bag he had with him. I pouted. He didn't notice.

"I'm pouting over here," I said.

"Fine," he said. "What were you doing?"

"The question is not what _was_ I doing, the question is what _wasn't_ I doing," I said. "Which is a very good question."

"Sly," Ryne said, sleepily. Chris walked out of one of the other rooms, stretching, and into one of the two bathrooms.

"Morning, LC," Lucas called. Chris grunted at him and continued his walk to the bathroom. I giggled.

"You call him LC?" I asked.

"Yeah, it stands for Little Chris," Ryne said.

"Well, where I'm from, it stands for Lauren Conrad," I said, rolling my eyes. I opened the door to the food closet, and pulled out some poptarts, and stashed some in my backpack. I turned my laptop off and stashed that in there as well. I put all my laptop accessories in the bag, and then zipped in up. "Where's…um…"

"Olesya?" Ryne supplied.

"Yeah," I said.

"Bed," Ryne said. "She's _so_ not a morning person."

"Didn't know that," I said. "Interesting. So, I've never been to Cali before. What's it like?"

"Like this, except for warmer," Lucas said, laughing. "It hasn't been very nice this year, so far, but it's still winter."

"It's gonna be like summer over there for me, isn't it?" I asked. Lucas shrugged and nodded. I threw the remainder of the stuff I hadn't yet packed into my duffel bag. "Okay, I'm all packed. What was the rush?"

"The rush is we have to be at the airport in an hour and a half, and it takes almost an hour to get there," Lucas said.

"You worry too much," I said.

"No, I worry just the right amount," he said.

"No, he worries too much," Ryne said, through a mouthful of cereal. "Why d'you think he stayed?"

"I thought he was the responsible one," I said. "Didn't we cover that?" I didn't wait for an answer, and went over to the bathroom sinks to brush my teeth. Chris came out of the bathroom as I was brushing, and he walked into the living area.

"Dude," Ryne said. "Put on a shirt." I giggled, and Chris walked back past me into the bedroom he'd been using to search for his shirt. I finished brushing my teeth and started fooling around with my hair (which still looked good from the dance, I might add). I just took it down from the ponytail and let the blonde curls fall around my face.

"It's an airplane, not a fashion show," Olesya said, walking into the bathroom beside me.

"I know," I said. I went back into the living room, where all three boys were sitting around and yawning. I yawned.

"Oh, case in point," Chris said. "Yawning is contagious."

"There's a book about that," I said. "I think they read in on Between the Lions once."

"Okay, you're _how_ old?" Lucas asked.

"Fifteen!" I insisted. "It was a long time ago, and we didn't get cable til I was a senior in high school."

"So, you were, like, what, nine?" Ryne joked.

"Thirteen," I said.

"Same difference," Ryne said, lazily. I rolled my eyes, and Katrina emerged from her room, stared at us, and then went into her side of the suite's bathroom.

"Good morning to you, too," I called after her.

"Mm," she said.

"Okay, so when are we going?" I asked.

"When they call us," Lucas said. His cell phone rang. "Hello? Zac, why are you calling me? It's like 3am in LA. There is no _possible_ way that you _just_ got in. Oh, well, that sucks for you. What's the weather like? That's cool. It's still snowing here. How's V and Ash? Awesome. See you guys in a couple hours. We're about to leave the dorms. Yeah, as soon as Olesya gets out of the bathroom."

"You didn't have to tell him _that_," Olesya complained from the sink area.

"She says hi," Lucas said to Zac. "Okay, well, I gotta go. Yeah. Uh-huh. I know, I know. Yeah, okay, bye." He hung up his phone, and we were all staring at him. "That was Zac. He says, um, hi."

"Uh-huh," I said. "That wasn't the weirdest half a phone conversation that I've ever witnessed or anything."

"You should hang out around Corbin. He has really weird half a phone conversations," Ryne said.

"I bet," I said. "Okay, we're going!" Katrina came hurrying out of the bathroom.

"Have fun in Cali, and don't forget to call me," she said.

"You're right on my list," I said. "Right after getting Lucas's number." I could practically hear Lucas turning bright red. "For my mom." I actually could hear him turning bright red. I could also hear Ryne and Chris laughing their heads off.

"Okay, time to go," he said. "And I don't want to meet your mom ever."

"Sounds like a plan." I said. "I don't want you to meet my mother."

"Coolio," he said.

"Coolio?" I mocked.

"I mean…coolz?" he offered. I rolled my eyes.

"Lise, you done in there?" Ryne called.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Olesya said, walking into the living area.

"Okay, we're going," Lucas said. "Grab your stuff, and for heaven sakes, put a coat on."

"Yes, mother," I said, donning a coat and picking up my backpack. Chris grabbed my duffel, and Katrina walked the five of us down to the limo that was waiting for us. Even though it was way to early to be awake, there were people gathered around it. I waved at them in a rather "I'm _so_ much better than you" way, that made Chris laugh, and we drove away to the airport.

We had to wait around for.ev.er in the airport, because Lucas insisted upon getting there so early. I did a word seek book. Yep, the whole book. Finally, they called us for boarding, and we went up to the little podium place. They asked for my ticket and boarding pass, when I realized I didn't have one.

"Luc–" I began, but he handed me a ticket and boarding pass before I could get out the rest of the sentence. "Thanks." We boarded the plane.

"Sorry it's not first class," Chris apologized as we boarded. "We're not cool enough to fly first class."

"I've never flown first class in my life," I said. "I'm not such a big fan of leather seats anyway."

"Ohh, they're so comfortable," Lucas said. Ryne and Olesya had two seats together on the far left of the plane. Lucas, Chris and I had three seats together on the far right of the plane. There was an aisle between Lucas and Olesya. Why there was only five seats to a row, I'll never figure out. I took the right window seat, next to Chris, who was next to Lucas. Are you still with me? Okay.

"I don't have to have the window seat, you guys," I said. They insisted I have it. "I…no!" I traded with Chris, so I was between the two boys. "Okay, so now, as I was saying…"

"It was Kaycee's ticket," Lucas said in answer to my unasked question. "She didn't come so you got hers."

"Oh," I said. "Well, that's cool. That's not what I was saying."

"Aren't you tired?" Lucas asked.

"No," I said. "I'm a college student. I don't _get_ tired." The captain began informing us of stuff that no one cared about, and then we took off. When we were in the air, I took out my notebook, and opened it.

"What's that?" Chris asked.

"Good God, do you have to know everything?" I asked.

"Yes, actually," he replied.

"Oh, well, since you asked, this is a notebook," I said. "You can use it to write stuff in."

"What'cha writing?" he asked.

"None of your business," I said. I took out a pencil and began writing quickly, before the idea escaped me.

"Are you even writing in English?" Lucas asked, peering at my notebook.

"Maybe," I said.

"No, I think she is," Chris said. "See that word there. I think it's 'stalker'." He pointed to a grouping of words that actually said "stroke above par" and I rolled my eyes and kept writing.

"Here, why don't you keep yourself busy?" I suggested, handing him the first piece of paper in the front pocket.

"List of Famous People I Want To Meet," Chris read. "Written in Chemistry Class, January 2008."

"Nice," Lucas said. "Who's on it?"

"Us," Chris said. "There I am, number…six! I'm number six?!"

"Hey, I'm number one!" Lucas said. "That's…weird."

"I'm going to stop saying stuff to you guys now," I said. "Really." I kept writing in my notebook, and every once in a while Chris would identify a word or two incorrectly and I would laugh.

"Okay, give me a new piece of paper. I'm bored," Lucas said. I passed him the stack of papers in the front of my notebook and went back to writing. I didn't have any idea which pages I'd given him until he started laughing his head off.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Do you actually know people who end up proving something completely different from their original hypothesis?" Lucas asked, showing me a page from an original story I'd been writing.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "My best friend does it all the time. He'll start with something like, how come rhinos are big and scary and I'll zone out on what he's talking about, and when I drift back in, he'll end with 'and that's why movie stars are completely overpaid'. Actually, this one time, he started talking to me about my ex-boyfriend, and then he ended up telling me I can't name my TV show 'The Samantha Show' because he's going to name _his_ show 'The Sam Show' and people would get confused." Lucas stared.

"Okay," he said. "That answers my question." He went back to reading, and I went back to writing. I realized Chris hadn't said anything in a while, and when I looked over, he'd fallen asleep. It was cute. There was a long, long pause, during which the flight attendant threw pretzels at us.

"What'cha reading now?"

"The cave is part of Mars?" Lucas asked. "I'm confused. Okay, the cave is next to Lost Land, which is near the center of the earth, but it's on Mars?"

"It's not supposed to make sense, that's the whole point," I said. "There are people teleporting and time-traveling and turning into mist…and _that's_ the part you find unbelievable?"

"Yes," Lucas said.

"Alright," I said. "Keep reading, it gets dumber." I resumed writing, but before I'd finished with my idea, the plane was landing again, and I had to put it away. When we landed, we got off the plane. "Where are we?"

"Kentucky," Ryne said.

"Why are we there?" I asked.

"Because we're in the Cincinnati airport," Ryne said. "Lunch anyone?"

"It's like…noonish…" Lucas said. "So, sure. Pizza?"

"Sounds good," I said, remembering one other time I'd been to the airport. "There's a good place to eat right in the center of the moving sidewalks place…" After lunch, Lucas called Zac to talk to him, and had a really weird half a phone conversation. Our flight to LA didn't leave until 3:30, so we had a bunch of time to kill. We mostly sat at the gate, and I typed on my laptop until I fell asleep. At three o'clock, Lucas poked me awake.

"Morning sunshine," he said. I laughed, pulling my iPod out of my ears and turning it off.

"Whatcha listening to?" Chris asked. I looked at it quickly before it turned off.

"Well, it was Legally Blonde when I fell asleep, but now it's Lion King, I guess," I said, putting the whole device in my sweatpants pocket, headphones and all.

"Oh," Chris said.

"Chris played Young Simba in the Broadway version and the touring cast," Lucas informed me.

"I actually knew that," I said.

"Wow, you know scarily a lot about us," Lucas said, handing me the ticket for this plane as we boarded.

"Well, I have to," I said. "My mom keeps asking my dumb things about you guys."

"I sure she really cares, too," Lucas said, laughing. I looked around.

"Where's Ryne and Olesya?" I asked. Lucas looked around, before spotting them just going past the podium. "So are they, like, back together now, or what?" Lucas and Chris looked at each other, then back at me and shrugged. I stowed my backpack in the overhead bin, and sat down in the window seat. This time, there was two seats on my side, and three on the other side. Lucas sat with Ryne and Olesya and Chris sat next to me. I fell asleep before the plane even began taxiing down the runway. Before long, we were landing in sunny LA, although it was raining, so I might say rainy LA. Evidently I hadn't missed much except for the drink cart. I got up, got my backpack and stumbled sleepily off the plane. It was already five local time (eight at home), and I was hungry for dinner.

"Shit," Chris exclaimed.

"What?" Olesya asked.

"Where's she gonna stay?" he asked. Olesya exchanged looks with Ryne and they shrugged.

"You'd think Zac would have planned this out," Chris said.

"Well, he did," Zac said, sneaking up behind us. "Didn't Lucas tell you?"

"No, he forgot," Lucas said, slapping five with Zac. "Missed you dude."

"You two are weird," I said. "And you speak about yourselves in the third person."

Evidently I was to stay at some place, where Vanessa and Ashley had rented an awesome apartment. It overlooked some really scenic scenery. We claimed my baggage at Baggage claim, and Zac and Lucas took me to the apartment place, where Vanessa and Ashley were sitting on the couch, watching some dumb TV show I'd never heard of in my life. Lucas dropped my duffel, which alerted the girls of our presence. Vanessa jumped up, almost spilling her popcorn, ran over to Zac and kissed him. I tried my hardest not to look to annoyed, but as anyone who knows me knows I can't even watch the kiss scene in HSM2 without getting annoyed.

"Anyway," Vanessa said. "Hi Samantha."

"Hi Vanessa," I said.

"So, there's a room for you down the hall," Ashley said. "Come on boys." Zac and Lucas picked my stuff back up and carried it down the hall before dumping it in a pile on the floor.

"Thanks guys," I said. "And thank you so much for letting me stay here and stuff."

"Hey, we took you from your home, made you quit school," Zac said. "We owe it to you to put you up some place."

"And here was the most logical choice," Lucas said. "So, get some sleep tonight, because we have a meeting tomorrow. If you're lucky you might get to meet some more of the people on your list."

"What list?" Zac asked.

"Famous people she wants to meet," Lucas said, taking it out of his pocket and slipping it to Zac.

"Hey, why am I number THREE?" Zac complained.

"Because she'd rather wear me on a necklace than you," Lucas said, sticking his tongue out at Zac, and then scurrying out of the room before Zac could catch him.

"Boys, no running in the house!" Ashley called.

"We weren't," Lucas and Zac said at the same time. I laughed, and followed them back into the living room. Ashley was holding the list.

"Hey, look, I'm number two!" she exclaimed.

"On what?" Vanessa asked from the couch.

"List of famous people she wants to meet," Ashley said.

"What number am I?" Vanessa asked.

"Um…" Ashley said, looking down the list. "Seven."

"Seven?!" Vanessa asked. "Jeez. Who's above me?"

"Well, the three of us, Corbin, Drew, and Chris," Ashley said.

"Oh, okay," Vanessa said, turning her attention back to the TV. Ashley rolled her eyes.

"Don't you boys have to be somewhere?" she asked. "Like your own apartment?"

"Okay, we're going," Zac said. "You don't have to push."

"I wasn't," Ashley said. Zac and Lucas left the apartment.

"Where do they live?" I asked. I heard a door slam that wasn't ours.

"Across the hall," Vanessa said, laughing.

"Like Friends," I said.

"Kind of," Vanessa said. "Am I Monica or Rachel?"

"I'd have to say Monica," Ashley said. "Cuz she's married to Chandler, who would of course be…"

"Lucas?" I asked, laughing.

"Yeah, I guess," Ashley said, laughing. "Let's pretend he's Zac. And Lucas is Joey."

"Yeah, okay," I said, laughing.

"So, you hungry?" Ashley asked.

"That depends, what is there?" I asked.

"Well, there's a pizza menu on the fridge," Vanessa said. "Or I think the boys have some frozen lasagna."

"Why?" I asked.

"Oh, they had a thing and they needed lasagna…" Vanessa said, vaguely. I walked over to the fridge and looked inside it. "Or you can have anything in the fridge." I settled down on a chair with a bag of grapes.

"That's your dinner?" Ashley asked.

"We had pizza for lunch," I said. "And it's really breakfast, because I didn't sleep until this afternoon…you know. We went to a dance last night, so I really wasn't tired, and Lucas made us get up at, like, five because he's insane or something really similar, and then we were waiting around forever at the jetport…so…"

"Well, what a day," Ashley said. "You went to a dance? Jealous."

"I'm not," I said. "You can go in my place next time. I sort of accidentally trusted Lucas to Katrina. Which was a mistake." Ashley laughed. "Katrina's a little…insane."

"We noticed," Vanessa said.

"Yeah, but I love her to death," I said. "She's like my second best friend in the whole world." My phone rang and I looked at it. "Hey, I get service out here." I answered the phone. "Yeah?"

"Where are you?" my mom asked.

"Nowhere," I said. "What's up?"

"I take it you've decided to drop the Lucas thing," my mom said.

"Well, no, he's here, but he's across the hall. I'm hanging with Vanessa and Ashley right now," I said.

"You are insane," my mother said. "So, I'm going to bed. Are you in for the night?"

"Mom, it's like six," I said.

"Actually, it's like nine," my mother said, "and I'm tired. Are you in for the night?"

"Yeah, sure," I said. "I'll talk to you tomorrow." I hung up. "There's a three hour time difference between here and home."

"Yeah," Ashley said. "We know."

"I got a good question," I said. "Why are you filming College Musical in Maine, if all DCOMs are shot on location in Utah? And especially if it's the University of Albuquerque. It doesn't snow there."

"Well, it doesn't snow in Maine, either. In July," Ashley said.

"Not usually," I said. "Good point. Do one of you two have my list?" Ashley checked her pockets.

"No, Lucas must have taken it," she said.

"Bet he did," Vanessa said, eyes still glued to whatever dumb TV show she was watching. "He always steals our stuff."

"V, that was _toilet paper_, and it was _one time_," Ashley said.

"Just saying," Vanessa said.

"And he gave it back," Ashley said. "Sort of."

"He TP'd our apartment!" Vanessa said.

"It was funny!" Ashley said. I rolled my eyes. It seemed like it was going to be a lot of fun with the girls in LA.

**A/N: I'm back with another installment of this story, in honor of me finally watching HSM: The Concert. Anyway, so next chapter: No idea yet. Probably we go to that meeting and meet more famous people. Probably I finally freak out about meeting so many famous people, and probably my mother finds out where I've gone and freaks.**

**I'd like to say that I own neither HSM nor the real people actors that act in it (or Drew Seeley, even though I wish I did own them all, but especially him), but I like to use them anyway, because I think it's funny. I don't own any of the other products I mentioned, and the only thing I really own is me, my mom and Katrina. That, and the sheet of paper with the List of Famous People I want to Meet written on it. As of this second, it is 32 people long.**

**Samantha. :)  
**


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